Hundreds march around Denton square to show solidarity

Hundreds march around Denton square to show solidarity

Millions of people gathered Saturday at women’s marches in cities across the country to protest the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Denton was no exception. Hundreds of people gathered on the Square to show support and solidarity for the country-wide women’s demonstration.

“Everyone is here for a different reason,” said Brooke Scoggins, one of the planners for the Denton event. “But we all share the same values and that’s what brings us together.”

The march began at noon in front of the Courthouse on the Square. By 12:30 p.m., the demonstrators formed a circle around the Courthouse, and shortly after began marching around the building, chanting a variety of slogans: “not a wall, build a bridge,” “they go low, we go high,” and “sí, se puede. Yes we can.”

Overwhelmingly, people said the march’s intention was to show solidarity with the other marches around the country, namely the march in Washington, D.C., which attracted over 500,000 people.
But at about 1 p.m. the sound of a gong rang across the Square and the crowd fell silent. The crowd put up peace signs in the air and observed a moment of silence. Once over, the crowd jeered and chanted, many speaking with each other.

“I wanted to stand in solidarity with the march in Washington,” said Curtis Kimberlin, a UNT student and a member of the LGBT community. “I felt like this election was very saddening and heartbreaking for many Americans.”

Hundreds of women marched to the Denton Square to show support for the many other demonstrations around the country. Jake King

As the march went on, there was non-protest activity around it. Several booths were set up with the purpose of helping people become more involved in politics and government. Voter registrars, like UNT associate English professor Stephanie Hawkins, set up their own booth.

“All I’m doing basically is providing the opportunity for people to become more active and engaged citizens locally and in their state,” Hawkins said.

Some attendees, like Joseph Kane, were one of a few Trump supporters that showed up. Kane, however, showed up to understand the other side.

“I think as Americans we’re doing a disservice to our country if we don’t get the perspective of our fellow Americans,” Kane said. “It’s to experience what their narrative is and what’s important to them.”

One of the main themes of the march was to ask the question, “why do we march?” Attendees were allowed to write down their answer to that question and put their answers in boxes labeled with the very same question.

“Basically the idea is to just share your reason for being here,” Hawkins said. “Share what you stand for with someone else.”

Dempsene Lester and Linda Cooper Dixon, who were giving away free Black Lives Matter and “My President” t-shirts with Barack Obama on them, had strong sentiments against Trump but felt confident in the march.

“I want us to get back to us being a collective nation, where we look out for everyone and not just a select few,” Lester, a teacher, said.

While Denton didn’t have quite the numbers compared to other marches across the country, event-planner Scoggins is happy with the results.

“I think what’s amazing is that it was just a small number of us getting together because we wanted to do something that showed unity in the community,” Scoggins said. “To have this kind of turnout shows that the community is united.”

Kane said that while he didn’t agree with some of the signs he saw, he appreciated that is was peaceful and relatively civil.

Jeff Peters, a Denton resident who was holding a sign that read “Proud Feminist,” said he believed it was important to stand up for everyone’s rights.

“I still think our power is in the vote,” Peters said. “Turning out like this is great, but the only way to fix this is to vote them out of office.”

Featured Image: Protesters gather at the Square in Denton to protest the recent inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States. Jake King

5 Comments

I was there. It was peaceful. It was empowering to see so many men, women, children together to say “We respect each other and the rhetoric of this president is not right” and we want to be heard. Thank you UNT for covering this event.

It’s been reported that donnie baloney wanted to install a gold-plated commode in the White House, but he was told by his new abode’s staffers that this wouldn’t be allowed because of the historic nature of the place. Mike Pence said to him reassuringly, “Don’t worry, Mr. President, I’m sure they won’t mind golden showers.”

The people that I despise even more than Trump (who can’t help his own ignorance, meanness, narcissism, aggressiveness, boastfulness, prevarication etc.) are his surrogates/explainers – individuals that have sold their souls to the devil for pay or for a cabinet post.

One of the major sins of the American mainstream media is to be giving equal voice to such individuals. In that sense, the media is just as guilty of putting Trump in office and legitimizing him as Comey, low IQ voters, or the Russians. If these supporters have been proven to lie time and time again and deny well-established facts, what purpose does bringing them on the show serve? A person who lies or defends his boss’s lies should be automatically suspended from appearing on any self-respecting mainstream news channel indefinitely. Of course, a debate involving confrontation between liars and those that are disproving them attracts more interest, and that’s good for business. The MSNBC director has admitted that Trump campaign controversies and shenanigans have been fantastic for his channel’s bottom line. Ergo, expect more liars and deniers on MSNBC or CNN, not fewer.

I am a Trump supporter. As he said he will bring America back together again. You come together in huge protests in thousands of different cities, proving Trump’s going to bring America back together. Thank You all for supporting Trump in your protest groups of hundreds and thousands. He has already started to bring America back together again!

Yeah with a State, a now also a Government under full Republican Control I’m afraid that their is not much that can be done about this for the next two years. I admire the spirit of trying to patronize anti-misogyny, but it would really do is make all of you look crude, narcissistic, and irrational to Trump and his supporters and thereby further re-justify their actions. Like the new “Don’t Tread on Me” symbol for example, it’s basically also D*** glorification, but you know with the opposite sex. Image is what really sells in this nation (and what was thereby what sold the nation to Trump), so I think it is better to wait for the rest of America to learn from Trump’s mistakes in order to promote your goals. Good things do come to those who wait.